Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

[X] To want is to live, to grasp, to strive. At the foundation of every bond, in the root of every ambition, threaded through every movement of the world. Discern the deepest want in a soul, and there find the key to its understanding or undoing.

First one posits that understanding the motivations of people is key to understanding their actions and feelings. What one desires informs everything there is about them, so it is the thing that needs to be uncovered and understood.

Second one dwells of the consequences of loss. When you have a desire, what happens to you if you lose that desire. If you have something you want to keep or attain, what happens to you if that precious thing is lost. Once all desires are squashed, you lose your drive and everything loses meaning.

So, further summary: "Know what someone wants to know what they will do and why they will do it, and how to get them on your side using that knowledge" vs "Know what to take away from someone to know how to ruin them."

If we put a more introspective, self-centered way, and apply it to oneself instead to others, it could read somewhat like:

"Understand your own desires to know why you act the way you do, and where your will to act comes from." vs "Despair and Death. This is what will happen to you if you ever let go of your desires. Grasp them more tightly, for losing them has consequences, and those who wish to ruin you will try to take those from you, so be on the lookout for that."

Another interpretation:

Knowing how to tell what someone wants from what someone is like, and knowing what someone is like from what they want." vs "Knowing what must be taken away from someone in order to topple them, and how it is taken."

Humm, I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into these, or if any of my reads is more accurate than the others. But I think I am onto something.

I think I prefer the "understanding the source of people's reasons to live" bit more than "knowing the consequences of giving up on the things you truly want"

CornyBones said:

I thought we didn't need the dress to fly? Wasn't that the whole deal with the Wind Thief arc ages ago, where the dress got stressed and gobbled up some sheets?

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Wind Thief allows for a limited flights, utilising winds. Dress just allowed flight whenever. Plus, we are currently too charred to use Wind Thief.

CornyBones said:

I thought we didn't need the dress to fly? Wasn't that the whole deal with the Wind Thief arc ages ago, where the dress got stressed and gobbled up some sheets?

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Normally, yes, but Ling Qi is still rather severely injured. Wind Thief being unable to work right now seems pretty reasonable.

Doing a little comparing:
Discern the deepest want in a soul, and there find the key to its understanding or undoing.
-This is about Knowing.
-It is specific, its about learning the deepest desire of a soul. One target.
-It is a Tool. To know their deepest desire can be used to understand others or break them.

Why does this work?
Identifying their deepest desires puts a person's actions, bonds and beliefs into context. Knowing this context allows you to befriend or destroy them easily, because as Xin and Jiao shows, once you see the central axis of an individual you can just affect that one thing to affect everything else.
It doesn't matter if the them right now cannot want to be friends. If you find their core driving force and shake it, they will be able to reevaluate.

Example target: Liming. Identify her core driving purpose, which will give context to why she rages and which feuds can and cannot be given up. Let her speak. However, this is fundamentally a preliminary step. It is information, you still need to make the choice and Act.

In it's severance is despair. In despair lies death.
-This is about Changing.
-It is general, it doesn't care how many it impacts or how important the desire is, only that the desire ends.
-It is a Weapon. It is used to force change upon others, bringing death.

Why does this work?
Life is motion, Want drives motion. Hot moves to Cold, Lightning travels from highest potential to lowest. It doesn't matter what specific attraction is involved here, each individual want that is removed reduces the impetus to motion, and thus moves them towards death.
For an individual, remove the desire to avoid harm, make them forget why they fight, numb their senses to the need to conserve resources for later.
For a group, strike at their commitment, obliterate their agenda so they spiral into blind resource acquisition, or at their greed, so they spend all of themselves.

Example target: Imperial Conservative bloc. Strike at their pride in identity, undermine their xenophobia, and make them feel comfortable such that they don't idealize order and safety. The bloc dissolves...though it doesn't actually do anything about where the components go next, because you don't understand them.

veekie said:

In it's severance is despair. In despair lies death.
-This is about Changing.
-It is general, it doesn't care how many it impacts or how important the desire is, only that the desire ends.
-It is a Weapon. It is used to force change upon others, bringing death.

Why does this work?
Life is motion, Want drives motion. Hot moves to Cold, Lightning travels from highest potential to lowest. It doesn't matter what specific attraction is involved here, each individual want that is removed reduces the impetus to motion, and thus moves them towards death.
For an individual, remove the desire to avoid harm, make them forget why they fight, numb their senses to the need to conserve resources for later.
For a group, strike at their commitment, obliterate their agenda so they spiral into blind resource acquisition, or at their greed, so they spend all of themselves.

Example target: Imperial Conservative bloc. Strike at their pride in identity, undermine their xenophobia, and make them feel comfortable such that they don't idealize order and safety. The bloc dissolves...though it doesn't actually do anything about where the components go next, because you don't understand them.

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I think I'd like to add another example to this one, since the one you mention seems good, but there is one that also works well.

Jiao's loss after An ascended. Jiao lost what he wanted the most, An and he stagnated from that point onwards. Knowing how broken he became when he lost that which was most important to him.

I get the feeling this is an insight that leads in the direction of how to provoke broken ways, and heart demons into others by ruining or robbing them of what matters most to them.

[X] To want is to live, to grasp, to strive. At the foundation of every bond, in the root of every ambition, threaded through every movement of the world. Discern the deepest want in a soul, and there find the key to its understanding or undoing.

[X] To want is to live, to grasp, to strive. At the foundation of every bond, in the root of every ambition, threaded through every movement of the world. Discern the deepest want in a soul, and there find the key to its understanding or undoing.

[X] To want is to live, to grasp, to strive. At the foundation of every bond, in the root of every ambition, threaded through every movement of the world. Discern the deepest want in a soul, and there find the key to its understanding or undoing.

This one seems more suitable to Ling Qi's Way. The other one is more of a rejection of the Dreaming/Pure Way and the useless death cult the Weilu turned into.

[X] To Want is to live, to grasp, to strive. At the foundation of every bond, in the root of every ambition, threaded through every movement of the world. In it's severance is despair. In despair lies death.

[x] To want is to live, to grasp, to strive. At the foundation of every bond, in the root of every ambition, threaded through every movement of the world. Discern the deepest want in a soul, and there find the key to its understanding or undoing.

[x] To want is to live, to grasp, to strive. At the foundation of every bond, in the root of every ambition, threaded through every movement of the world. Discern the deepest want in a soul, and there find the key to its understanding or undoing.